,1 REFORMATION OF MORALS PRACTICABLE 
AND INDISPENSABLE, 



SERMON, 



»ELIVERED AT NEW-HAVEN, ON THE EVENING 
OF OCTOBER, 27, 1812, 

BY 

LYMAN BEECHEK, A. M. 

JPASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN LITCHFIELD, 

<&econti glutton* 



Wttca: 

PRINTED BY MERRELi AND CAMP* 
1813, 




,p 



V 



SERMON, 



EZEKIEIi XXX111 10. 

Therefore, thou son of man, speak unto the house of Is- 
rael, Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our 
sins he upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we 
then live? 

A.T the time this direction was given to the prophet, 
the nation of Israel had become very wicked and were suffer- 
ing in captivity the punishment of their sins. And yet they 
did not reform — They affected to doubt whether the Most 
High would pardon them if they should reform. But if he 
would, it would afford them no consolation, for reformation, 
they insisted, had become hopeless. « Our transgressions and 
our sins be upon us and we pine away in them and die, how 
should we then live V The burthen has increased until we 
aP o crushed beneath it. The disease has progressed until it 
has become incurable. 

They were correct in the inference that if they did not re- 
form they must die ; but they erred lamentably in the con- 
clusion that reformation was hopeless. 

To wipe off such an aspersion from his character, and to 
banish from the minds of his people such desponding appre- 
hensions, the Most High condescends to expostulate with 
them. Have I any pleasure in the death of him that dieth ? 
Is it my fault that nations are wicked ? Do I constrain them 
to sin or prevent their reformation ? As I live saith the Lord 
I have no pleasure in tbe death of the wicked; but that the 
wicked turn from his way and live : " turn ye, turn ye from 
your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel V 9 

We are brought, therefore, by the text and its connections to 
the doctrine, That a work of reformation, in a time of great 
moral declension, is a difficult, but by no means an imprac- 
ticable work. 

In the illustration of this doctrine it is proposed to con- 
sider, 



4' 

I. Some of the difficulties which may be expected to im- 
pede a work of reformation. 

II. Show that such a work is, noth withstanding, entirely 
practicable. 

III. Consider some of the ways in which it may be success- 
fully attempted. And, 

IV. The motives to immediate exertion. 

With respect to the diiticulties which may be expected to 
attend a work of reformation, one obvious impediment will 
be found in the number and character of those who must be 
immediately affected by such a work. 

The sons of Belial, in a time of declension, are numerous 
and daring. Emboldened by impunity they have declared 
themselves independent both of God and man, and are leagued 
by a common interest and a common feeling to defend their 
usurped immunities. They are watchful and zealous, and 
the moment an effort is made to execute the laws, every 
mouth is open against the work ; and their clamours, and 
sneers, and threatenings, and lies, like the croakings of EgApt, 
fill the land. 

This direct opposition may be expected to receive, from 
various sources, collateral aid. In this wicked world, where 
the love of money is the root of evil, there are not a few who 
traffic in the souls and bodies of men. Not immoral always in 
their own eonduct,they thrive by the vices of other men and may 
be tempted to resist a reformation, which would dry up these 
impure sources of revenue. They would not justify intem- 
perance, nor the means of promoting it, but pretexts are ne- 
ver wanting to conceal the real motives of men and justify 
opposition to whatever they deem inconsistent with their in- 
terest. Though reformation, therefore, might be admitted 
to be desirable, either the motives of those who make the at- 
tempt, or the means by which they make it, will always be 
wrong ; and it will be impossible ever to devise a right way, 
till their interest is on the other side. In many cases it is to 
be hoped that integrity would get the victory over cupidity ; 
but in many more it is to be feared that avarice, secretly or 
openly, would send recruits to the standard of opposition. 

This phalanx may receive some augmentation from those 
whose pride may be wounded through the medium of their 
unhappy relatives. 

They could endure to see them live in infamy and die in 
despair— while they shrink from the imagined disgrace of 
applying a remedy which may rescue the victim, or limit 
the influence of his pestilent example. 

How Ion? shall it he ere men ivill learn that sin is infamy > 
and that reformation is glory and honour. 



*vy 



To the preceding must be added the opposition of all the 
timid, falsely called, peace makers. 

They lament bitterly, the prevailing evils of the day, and 
multiply predictions ot' divine judgments and speedy ruin — 
But if a voice be raised or a finger be lifted to attempt a re- 
formation, they are in a tremor, lest the peace of society be 
invaded. Their maxim would seem to be, •* better to die in 
sin, if we may but die quietly, than to purchase life and hon- 
our by contending for them." IT men will be wicked, let 
them be wicked, if they will but be peaceable. But the mis- 
chief is, men freed from restraint will be wicked and will 
not be peaceable. No method can be devised more effectual 
to destroy the peace of society, than tamely to give up the 
laws to conciliate the favor of the flagitious. Like the tri- 
bute paid by the degenerate Romans to purchase peace of 
the northern barbarians, every concession will increase the 
demand and render resistance more hopeless. 

Another class of men will encamp very near the enemy 
through mere love of ease. 

They would have no objection that vice should be sup- 
pressed, and good morals promoted, if these events would 
come to pass of their own accord ; but. when the question is 
asked, what must be done? This talk of action is a terrific 
thing, and if in their panic they go not over to the enemy, 
it is only because the enemy also demands courage and 
enterprise— In this dilemma, it is judged expedient to put in 
requisition the resources of wisdom, and gravely to caution 
against rashness, and innovation, and zeal without knowl- 
edge, until all about them are persuaded, that the safest and 
wisest and easiest way is to do nothing. 

There is another class of men, not too indolent, but too ex- 
clusively occupied with schemes of personal enterprise, to be- 
stow that time or labor upon plans which regard only the 
general good. 

If their fields bring forth abundantly, if their profession 
be lucrative, if they can buy and sell and get gain, it is enough. 
Society must take care of itself. Distant consequences are 
not regarded, and generations to come must provide for their 
own safety. The stream of business hurries them on, with- 
out the leisure of a moment, or an anxious thought concern- 
ing the general welfare. 

Another impediment to be apprehended, when the work of 
reformation is attempted is found in the large territory of neu- 
tral around, which, on such occasions, is often very populous. 
Many would engage in the enterprize cheerfully, were 
they quite certain it eould be done with perfect safety. But 



y-v 



perhaps it may injure their Interest or affect their populari- 
ty. They take their stand, therefore, on this safe middle 
ground — They will not oppose the work, for perhaps it may 
be popular : And they will not help the work, for perhaps it 
may he unpopular — They wait, therefore, till they perceive 
whether Israel or Amaleck prevail, and then, with much 
self-complacency, fall in on the popular side. 

This neutral territory is especially large in a republican 
government, where so much emolument and the gratification 
of so much ambition depend upon the suffrages of the people. 
It requires no deep investigation to make it manifest to the 
candidate for suffrage, That if he lend his influence to pre- 
vent travelling on the Sabbath, the Sabbath-breaker will not 
vote for him ; if he lay his hand upon tippling shops, and 
drunkards, the whole suffrage of those who are implicated 
will be turned against him. Hence many who should be a 
terror to evil doers, do bear the sword in vain, They per- 
suade themselves that theirs, is a peculiar case, and that for 
them it is not best to volunteer in the work of reformation. 

To reduce the power of this temptation, it may be laid 
down as a maxim, that when the toleration of crimes becomes 
the price of public suffrage — when the people will not en- 
dure the restraint of righteous laws, but reward magistrates 
who violate their oath and suffer them to sin with impunity ; 
and when magistrates will sell their conscience and the pub- 
lic good for a little brief authority, then the public suffrage 
is of but Iktle value, for the day of liberty is drawing to a 
close, and the night of despotism is at hand. The people are 
prepared to become slaves, and the flagitious to usurp the 
government and rule them with a rod of iron. No compact 
formed by man, is more unhallowed or pernicious than this 
tacit compact between rulers and subjects, to dispense with 
the laws and tolerate crimes. 

In the midst of these difficulties, there are not a few who 
greatly magnify them by unmanly dejection. 

Like the captive Israelites they sit down and fold their 
hands, and sigh, and weep, and wish that something might 
be done, but inculcate unceasingly, the disheartening predic- 
tion that nothing can be done. *' It is a land that eateth tip 
the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it 
are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, 
the sons of JLnaks, which came of the giants, and we were in 
our oivn sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" 
Because the work cannot be done at a stroke, they con- 
clude that it can never be done. Because all that might be 
desirable cannot be obtained, perhaps ever, they conclude that 
nothing can be obtained. 



^s 



Talk of reformation, and the whole nation, with all its 
crimes, rises up before them, and fills them with dismay and 
despair. Jt seems never to have occurred to them, that if 
we cannot do great good it is best to do a little : and that, by 
accomplishing with persevering industry all that is practica- 
ble, the ultimate amount may be great, surpassing expecta- 
tion. 

There is yet another class of people who by no means de- 
spair of deliverance. But they have no conception that hu- 
man exertion will be of much avail. 

If we are delivered God must deliver us, and we must pray 
and wait till it shall please him to come and save us. But 
we may pray and wait forever, upon this principle, and the 
Lord will not come. 

The kingdom of God is a kingdom of means, and though 
the excellency of the power belongs to him exclusively; hu- 
man instrumentality is indispensable. 

It is by no means improbable that some may be aroused 
to oppose any special efforts at reformation, merely from 
their novelty. It is lamentable that such efforts should be a 
novelty in a world where they are always so necessary to 
keep back the encroachments of vice. But so it is. And 
however good and proper the exertions may be, if they have 
not been made before, they never should be made. « What 
new thing is this? Did our fathers ever do so ?" They had 
not the same occasion. But because they did not make spe- 
cial efforts to repel an enemy which did not assail them, shall 
we neglect by appropriate means to resist an enemy which 
is pouring in like a flood, and threatening to sweep us away? 
There are some who look with cold philosophic eye upon the 
progress of crimes, as a part of that great course of events 
which will roll on resistless in spite of human endeavor.-— 
And we know that the genius of the government, the pro- 
gress of science, and the refinement of wealth and luxury? 
will draw after them a train of consequences which no hu- 
man efforts can prevent. But are these consequences evil 
only ? Are not certain vices left behind in the rude age, and 
certain virtues produced by the age of refinement? If there 
be greater facilities of committing crimes, are there not also 
increased facilities of preventing them ? And if the balance 
be on the whole against us, is this an argument that we can 
do nothing, or only that we should double our diligence as 
dangers increase? Because nations have not resisted this 
tide of human events, does it follow that it cannot be resist- 
ed ? May not the deleterious causes be modified and coun- 
teracted, and their result delayed if not averted ? Will the 



J 8 

christian religion and its institutions exert no saving influ- 
ence in our favor ? Because Greece ami Rome, who had not 
this precious system, perished by their vices, is it certain 
that nations must perish now who experience its preserving 
influence? We have seen what idoJs can do, and we have 
before us the result of atheism. Let us water now with 
double diligence the tree whose leaves are for the healing of 
the nations, and not despair of its restoring influence till the 
experiment has been faithfully made and has failed. 

But not a few, after all, it may be feared, will stand aloof 
from the work of reformation, from the persuasion that we 
are in no danger. The world is no worse than it always has 
been, and this pretence of growing wickedness is only a song 
of alarm, sung by superstition from age to age. 

Surely then if we may credit testimony, the world has been 
uniformly bad enough to make reformation desirable, and if 
without special efforts, it has been stationary, the prospect of 
improvement by exertion is bright, and we are utterly inex- 
cusable if we do not make the attempt. 

But is it true that nations do not decline? whence then 
the punishment of the Israelites for this sin, and whence the 
maxim we have just combatted, that they must and will de- 
cline ? Were the morals of the Roman empire as good when 
it was sold at auction as at any antecedent period ? Was the 
age of Charles the second in England as favorable to virtue 
as any preceding age ? Did the late war produce in ouu 
own land no change for the worse ? Are the morals of New- 
England as pure now as they ever have been ? Is the God 
of heaven as universally worshipped in the family? Are 
children as much accustomed to subordination and as faith- 
fully instructed in religion ? Are the laws against immor- 
ality as faithfully executed, and the occasions for their inter- 
ference as few as at any former period ? Has there been no 
increase of slander, falsehood, and perjury ? Is the Sabbath 
day remembered and kept holy with its ancient strictness ? 
Did our fathers journey, and labor in the field, and visit, and 
ride out for amusement on that holy day, and do these things 
with impunity ? Has there been no increase of intemper- 
ance ? Was there consumed in the days of our fathers the 
proportion of five gallons of ardent spirits for every man, wo- 
man, and child in the land, and at an expense more than suf- 
ficient to support the gospel, the civil government, and eve- 
ry school and literary institution ? Did our fathers tolerate 
tippling-shops all over the land, and enrich merchants and 
beggar their families by mortgaging their estates to pay the 
expenses of intemperance ? Did the ardent spirits consumed 



sv 



by laborers amount not unfrequently to almost half the price 
of their labor, and did they faint often ere the day was past, 
and fail before the summer was epded, and die of intemper- 
ance in the midst of their days ? It is capable of demonstra- 
tion that the vigour of our countrymen, the amount of pro- 
ductive labour, and their morals are declining together under 
the influence of this destructive sin. 
AVe are to show 

II. That, notwithstanding all these impediments a reform- 
ation is entirely practicable. 

If it were not practicable, why should it be commanded 
and disobedience be followed w ith fearful punishment ? Shall 
not the judge of all the earth do right? Are not all his re- 
quisitions according to what a man hath and not according 
to what he hath not ? The commands of God, are the meas- 
ure and the evidence of human ability. He is not an hard 
master, reaping where he has not sowed and gathering 
where he has not strawed. The way of the Lord is not un- 
equal. He never demands of men the performance of im- 
possibilities. We conclude therefore, that reformation is 
practicable, because it is the unceasing demand of heaven 
that nations, as well as individuals, do turn from their evil 
ways. 

But facts corroborate theory. Reformations, great and 
difficult have been achieved. Such was the reformation 
from Popery, began by Luther. Who would have conceived 
it possible, before the event, that an individual, could awake 
half of Europe from the slumber of ages, and shed upon the 
nations, that light, whieh is shining more and more to the 
perfect day ! 

The abolition of the Slave-trade in England, and in our own 
country, is a memorable exhibition of what may be done by 
well directed persevering efforts. The inhuman traffic was 
sanctioned by custom, defended by argument, and still more 
powerfully, by a vast monied capital, embarked in the trade. 
It is not yet fifty years, since this first effort was made, and 
now the victory is won. Who produced this mighty revolu- 
tion ? A few men at first, lifted up their voice and were re- 
inforced by others, till the immortal work was done. 

A thousandth part of the study, and exertion, and expense, 
and suffering endured to achieve our independence, would be 
sufficient, with the divine blessing, to preserve our morals* 
and perpetuate our liberties for ever. Should a foreign foe 
invade us, there would be no despondency ; every pulse would 
beat high, and every arm would be strong. It is only when 
criminals demand the surrendry of our laws and institutions,. 



ft* 



liS 



fhat aTI faces gather paleness and all hearts are faint. Men 
who would fly to the field of battle <o rescue their country 
from shame, tremble at the song of the drunkard, and flee, 
panic struck, before the army of the aliens. 

But we .have facts to produce ; facts, more decisive than a 
thousand arguments, to prove that such a reformation as we 
need is practicable. 

Desperate as the state of the Jews was in their own esti- 
mation, they were reformed, and did not at that time pine 
away and die in their sins. And never, perhaps, was such a 
work attended with circumstances of greater difficulty. The 
whole order of God's worship had been deranged by the cap- 
tivity, and was again to be restored. Many of the people 
had contracted unlawful marriages, and husbands and wives 
were to be separated, and parents and children. Some had 
been in the habit of treading the wine press on the Sabbath 
day, and bringing in sheaves, and wine and grapes, and figs, 
and all manner of burthens. The people held also constant 
intercourse with Syrian merchants, who came into their city 
on the Sabbath and traded with them. But great as w**re 
the difficulties, Nehemiah and Ezra, and the Elders of the 
land undertook, and by the help of God accomplished the 
work of reformation. 

Other efforts of the same kind, have been crowned with 
similar success. A society was established in London, about 
the year 1697, to suppress vice, by promoting the execution 
of the laws. The moral state of the city and nation at that 
time, and the success of their association, are thus described 
by a respectable historian : 

** It is well known to our shame that profane swearing and 
cursing, drunkenness and open lewdness and profanation of 
the Lord's day, have been committed with great impunity 
and without control, without either shame or fear of laws : 
so that they were seen and heard at noon day, and in the open 
streets.— Debauchery had diffused itself through the whole 
body of the nation, till at last our morals were so corrupted, 
that virtue and vice had with too many changed their names. 
It was reckoned breeding to swear, gallantry to be lewd, good 
humor to be drunk, and wit to despise serious things. In 
this state of things, reformation was indeed talked of, as an 
excellent thing ; but vice was looked upon as too formidable 
an enemy to be provoked, and public reformation was thought 
to be so difficult a thing, that those who gave it very good 
words, thought it not safe to set about it. When things 
were in this dismal and almost desperate state, it came in- 
so the hearts of five or six private gentlemen, to engage in 



11 

this hazardous enterprize. This was such an undertaking, 
as might we.l be expected soon to alarm the enemy, and 
which the patrons of vice, would attempt to defeat, before 
any progress could be made. And so it proved. The cham- 
pions of debauchery put themselves in array, to defend their 
infamous liberties ; to ridicule, to defame, and to oppose this 
design. And others, whom in charity we could not look up- 
on as enemies, were forward to censure these attempts, as 
the fruit of an imprudent zeal. But notwithstanding a furi- 
ous opposition from adversaries, and the unkind neutrality 
o. friends, these gentlemen, not only held their ground, but 
made advances into the territory of the enemy. The society 
commencing witb five or six. soon embraced numbers and per- 
sons of eminence in every station. In imitation of this society, 
and for the same purpose, other societies were formed in eve- 
ry part of the city, and among the sober of almost every pro- 
fession and occupation. Besides these there were about 
thirty- nine religious societies in and about London, who, 
among other objects, made that of reformation a prominent 
one. 

« The effects of these combinations were favourable be- 
yond the most sanguine expectation. From their vigilance 
and promptitude, the growing vices of the day were checked, 
insomuch that it was soon found difficult to detect a single 
criminal in the streets and markets, where a little before 
horrid oaths, curses, and imprecations might be he«rd day and 
night. Multitudes of drunkards, profaners of the Lord's day, 
besides hundreds of disorderly houses, were brought to jus- 
tice and such open vices suppressed. Nor were the good ef- 
forts of these associations limited to the city. They soon 
extended to most of the principal towns and cities of the na- 
tion, to Scotland and Ireland, so that a great part of the 
kingdom, have been awakened in some measure to a sense of 
duty, and thereby a very hopeful progress is made towards a 
general reformation. ,> 

Similar societies have been formed in England, at differ- 
ent times, ever since. In 1802. a very respectable society 
of the above description was established in London. It ex- 
perienced at first most virulent opposition, but has complete- 
ly surmounted every obstacle, and now commands fear, and 
respect, and gratitude. Such has been its influence in pre- 
venting crimes, that at one annual meeting, the number of 
convictions reported was an hundred and seventy eight, at 
the next only seventy. As it respects the observation of the 
Sabbath particularly, the whole city of London, exhibits 
to a considerable degree, a new face. A vast number of 



12 

shops are closed, which used to be open on that day. The 
butchers of several markets have thanked the society, for com- 
pelling them to an act which they find productive of so much 
comfort to themselves, and have even associated to secure 
that triumph, which the labours of the society had won. 

Their useful and disinterested labours, have received the 
commendation and thanks of the Lord Chief Justice, of more 
than one of the judges and of a variety of magistrates. We 
desire also to bring our gift to their altar, (says the Chris- 
tian Observer, from which work we have taken this account) 
and to add the feeble testimony of our opinion, that this so- 
ciety deserves well of its country. 

In this couniry, about the year 1760, a society was form- 
ed in th? State of Maryland to aid the civil magistrate in the 
execution of the laws. And so well it is said, did the society 
succeed, as to induce numbers, in different states, to imitate 
their example. From that time to the present, similar asso- 
ciations have been formed in various places, as exigencies 
Jiave demauded and with good effect, whenever their exer- 
tions have been made with prudence and decision. 

We consider the fact, therefore, as now established, that 
reformation in a season of prevailing moral declension, is en- 
tirely practicable. And if it be so, it is a glorious fact shed- 
ding light upon the darkness of the present day. 

We are to consider 

III. Some of the ways in which this great work may be 
successfully attempted. 

And doubtless in the first place, the public attention must 
be called up to this subject, and the public mind must be im- 
pressed with a proper sense of danger and the necessity of 
reformation. 

From various causes, nations are prone to sleep over the 
gangers of moral depravation, till their destruction comes 
iipon them. A small portion only of the whole mass of 
crimes is seen at any one point. A few tippling shops are ob- 
served in a particular place empoverishing families and rear- 
ing up drunkards. But, it is not considered that thousands, 
with like pestilent influence are at work all over the land, 
training up recruits, to hunt down law and oi*der. A few in- 
stances aro witnessed, of needless travelling or labor or 
amusement on the Sabbath, which excite a momentary alarm. 
But it is not considered* that a vast army, probably three 
millions of people, are assailing at the same time this great 
bulwark of christian lands. 

The progress of declension is also so gradual, as to attract 
from day to day but little notice, or excite but little alarm 



? ^4 
13 

ISfow this slow, but certain approximation ©f the community 
to destruction, must be made manifest. The wkoh army of 
conspirators against law and order, must be brought out and 
arrayed before the public e\e, and the shame, ami the bon- 
dage, and the wo, which they are preparing for us. 

This exposition of public guilt and danger, is the appro- 
priate work of gospel ministers. They are watchmen, set 
upon the walls of Zion to descry and announce the approach 
of danger. And if through sloth or worldly avocauons, or 
fear of man, they blow not the trumpet at the approach of 
the enemy, and the people perish, the blood of the slain will 
the Lord require at their hands. Civil magistrates, are al- 
so ministers of God, attending continually upon this \^vj 
thing. It is their exclusive work, »*to see to it that the 
commonwealth receive no detriment." Indeed, evt ry man, 
is bound to be vigilant and firm, and unceasing in this great 
work. And by sermons, and conversation, and tracts, and 
news-papers, and magazines, and legislative aid, the point 
may be gained. The public attention may be called up to 
the subject, and just apprehensions of danger may be excit- 
ed, and when this is done, the greatest danger is past* The 
work is half accomplished. 

The next thing to be attempted, is the reformation of the 
better part of the community. 

In a time of general declension, some who are compara- 
tively virtuous, perhaps professedly pious, yield insensibly to 
the influence of bad example. Habits are formed, and prac- 
tices are allowed, which none would indulge in better days, 
but the openly \jcious. Each says of his own indulgence « is 
it not a little one ?" But the aggregate guilt is great, and 
the aggregate demoralizing influence of such license, in such 
persons, is dreadful. It annihilates the influence of their 
good example, tempts the inexperienced to enter, and the 
hardened to go on in the downward road, and renders all ef- 
forts to save them unavailing. If we would attempt there- 
fore, successfully the work of reformation, we must make 
the experiment first upon ourselves. We must cease to do 
evil and learn to do well, that with pure hands and clear vi- 
sion we may be qualified to reclaim others. If our liberty, 
even in things lawful, should become a stumbling block to 
the weak or the wicked, it may be no superfluous benevo- 
lence, to forego gratifications, innocent in themselves, that 
we may avoid the appearance of evil, and cut off occasion of 
reproach from all whom our exertions may provoke to de- 
sire occasion.* 

Upon this principle, it is presumed, the General Association of this State, 
have recommended to the District Associations, that they abstain from the use 



The next tiling demanding attention is the religious edu- 
cation of the rising generation. 

When the subject of reformation is proposed, multitudes 
turn their eyes to places of the greatest depravation, and to 
criminals of the most abandoned character, and because these 
strong holds cannot be carried, and these sons of lieiial re- 
formed, they conclude that nothing can be done, liul re- 
formation is not the work of a day, and if the strong holds 
of vice cannot be stunned, there is still a silent, certain way 
of reformation. Immoral men do not live forever ; and if 
good heed be taken that they draw no new recruits from our 
families, death will achieve for us a speedy victory. M e may 
stand still and see the salvation of God. Death will lay low 
the sons of Aoak, and a generation of another spirit will oc- 
cupy without resistance their fortilied places. 

From various causes, the ancient discipline of the family 
lias been extensively neglected. Children have neither been 
instructed in religion nor governed in early life, as they were 
in the days of our fathers. The imported discovery, that 
human nature is too good to be made better by discipline, 
that children are enticed from the right way by religious in- 
struction, and driven from it by the rod, and kept in thral- 
dom by the conspiracy of priests and legislators, has uni- 
ted not a few in the noble experiment of emancipating the 
world, by the help of an irreligious, ungoverned progeny. 

The indolent have rejoiced in the discovery, that our fa- 
thers were fools and bigots, and have cheerfully let loose their 
children, to help on the glorious work : While thousands of 
families having heard from thejr teachers, or believing in 
spite of them, that morality will suffice, both for earth and 
heaven, and not doubting that, morality will flourish without 
religion, have either not reared the family altar, or have put 
out the sacred fire and laid aside together the rod and the 
Bible, as superfluous auxiliaries in the education of children. 
From the school too, with pious regard for its sacred honors, 
the bible has been withdrawn, lest by a too familiar knowl- 
edge of its contents, children should learn to despise it. As 
if ignorance were the mother of devotion, and the efficacy of 
laws depended upon their not being understood. With simi- 
lar benign wisdom, has not only the rod, but government and 
catechetical instruction, and a regard to the moral conduct 
of children, been exiled from the school. 

of ardent spirits at their various ecclesiastical meeting's. And to the churches 
that it be understood that civility does not require, or expediency permit, the 
introduction of ardent spirits as a part of hospitable entertainment at social 
visits. 



7S1 

15 

These sagacious counsels, emerging from beneath, were 
heedlessly adopted by many, as the wisdom from above, until 
their result began to disclose their different origin. For it 
came to pass, in many places, that the school, instead of a 
nursery of piety, became often a place of temptation, where 
children forgetting the scanty instruction of the family learned 
insubordination by indulgence and impiety, and immorality 
by the example of those who were permitted to sin with im- 
punity. The consequence has been that, on all sides, our an- 
cient institutions are assailed, and our venerable habits and 
usages are passing away. 

To retrieve these mischiefs of negligence and folly, a gen- 
eral effort must he made to restore our ancient system of ed~ 
wation. There must be concert, new zeal and special. exer- 
tion. 

And let no man predict that the holy enterprize cannot 
sueeeed. Because we have listened to the syren song of vain 
philosophy and floated listlessly down the stream till the pre- 
cipice appears, shall we despair to row hack, when danger in- 
spires courage and calls aloud for a common effort? 

Our fathers were not fools ; as far from it were they as 
modern philosophers are from wisdom. Their fundamental 
maxim was, that man is desperately wicked, and cannot be 
qualified for good membership in society without the influence 
of moral restraint. With great diligence they availed them- 
selves therefore ©f thejaws and institutions of revelation, as 
embodying the most correct instruction, and the most pow- 
erful moral restraint. The word of God was daily read and 
his worship celebrated in the family and in the school, and 
children were trained up under the eye of Jehovah, In this 
great work, pastors, and churches, and magistrates co-opera- 
ted. And what moral restraint could not accomplish, was 
secured by parental authority and the coercion of the law. 

The success of these efforts, corresponded with the wisdom 
of the system adopted and the fidelity with which it was re- 
duced to practice. Our fathers established, and for a great 
while preserved, the most perfect state of society probably 
that has ever existed in this fallen world. 

The same causes will still produce the same effects, 
and no other causes will produce them. New Eng- 
land can retain her pre-eminence, only by upholding those 
institutions and habits which produced it. 'Divested of these, 
like Sampson shorn of his locks, she will become as weak and 
as contemptible as any other land. But let the family and 
the school be organized and ordered according to the ancient 
pattern. Let parents, am" schoolmasters, and pastors, and 



i-/t 



16 



churches, and magistrates, do their duty and all will be 
well. The crown Oi glory will return, and the most line 
gold will shine again iu all its ancient lustre. 

But we must here state more particularly, the indispensa- 
ble necessity of executing promptly the laws against immo- 
rality. 

Much may be done in the way of prevention : but, in a free 
government, moral suasion and coercion must be united. If 
children be not religiously educated and accustomed in early 
life to subordination, the laws will fail, in the unequal con- 
test, of subduing tigers to their yoke. But if the influence 
of education ano habit be not confirmed, and guarded by the 
supervening influence of law, this salutary restraint will be 
burst and swept away by the overpowering force of human de- 
pravity. To retrieve therefore our declension, it is indispen- 
sable that new fidelity pervade not only the family, the school, 
and the .church of God, but that the laws against immorali- 
ty be restored to their ancient vigour. Laws unexecuted are 
worse than nothing ; mere phantoms, which excite increased 
audacity, when the vain fears subside which they have in- 
spired. If the stream must have its course, it is better not to 
oppose obstructions, which will only increase its fury, and 
extend the desolation when they are swept away. But in a 
season of great moral declension, how shall we raise from 
the dust neglected laws, and give to them life and vigour? 

The multiplication of new prohibitions and penalties will 
not avail ; for the evil to be redressed is the non execution of 
laws already competent, if executed, to our protection. 

Shall the government itself stand forth, the watchful 
guardian of its own laws? Too often it may lack the incli- 
nation ; and always, it will be too much occupied by other 
concerns, to exercise the minute agency that is requisite. 

Shall the work then be delegated to a subordinate magis- 
tracy ? The neglect of official duty, is the very evil for 
which we now seek a remedy. Shall individuals then, vol- 
unteer their assistance? It is possible, that they may some- 
times experience a rebuke from the magistrate to whose aid 
they come. The workers of iniquity also, will conspire in- 
stantly, to hunt them down. While thousands of prudent 
well wishers to the public morals, will look on and see them 
sacrificed, pitying their rashness, and blessing themselves, 
that they were wise enough to stand aloof from enterprises 
of so much danger. 

Direct evils coninel men to execute the laws, while crimes 
full of deadly consequences are suffered to prevail with im- 
punity. With relentless zeal the sword pursues the fugitive 



17 

thief and murderer ; and no city of refuge affords them a 
sanctuary; While thousands devote themselves to the work 
of training up thieves and murderers, and in open da}, cut 
the moral ties which bind them, and let them loose upon so- 
ciety, and yet the sword sleeps, and judgment is turned away 
backward, and justice standeth afar off; while truth is fall- 
en in the streets, and equily cannot enter. 

To secure then, the execution of the laws against immor- 
ality, in a time of prevailing moral declension, an influence 
is needed, distinct from that of the government, independent 
of popular suffrage, superior in potency to individual efforts, 
and competent to enlist and preserve the public opinion on 
the side of law and order. 

This most desirable influence, as we have before observed, 
has been found in local voluntary associations of the wise and 
the good to aid the civil magistrate in the execution of the 
laws. These associations are eminently adapted to answer 
their intended purpose. They awaken the public attention, 
and by the sermons, the reports, and the conversation they 
occasion, diffuse much moral instruction. 

They combine the wisdom and influence of all who desire 
to prevent crimes, and uphold peace and good order in socie= 
ty They have great influence to form correctly the public 
opinion, and to render the violation of the law disgraceful, as 
well as dangerous. 

They teach the virtuous part of the community their 
strength, and accustom them to act as well as to wish, and 
to pray. 

They constitute a sort of disciplined moral militia, prepar= 
ed to aet upon every emergency, and repel every encroach- 
ment upon the liberties and morals of the state. By their 
numbers they embolden the timid and intimidate the enemy; 
and in every conflict the responsibility being divided among 
many, is not feared. 

By this auxiliary band, the hands of the magistrate are 
strengthened. The laws are rescued from contempt, the land 
is nurified, the anger of the Lord is turned away, and his 
blessing and protection restored.* 

.* The writer would not be understood to recommend an indiscriminate 
attempt, to erect local societies to aid the civil magistrate in executing the laws • 
In some instances grand jurors have done their duty with entire success. In 
others, the authority of the whole town have met and resolved, and published 
their resolutions faithfully to execute the laws. Heads of families have asso- 
ciated to restrain and guard their children and servants. Individuals without 
the formalities of an association ha v e met occasionally to converse toi 
3 



£-/* 



18 



If besides these local associations, a more extended concert 
could be formed of wise and good men, to devise ways and 
means of suppressing vice and guarding Ihe public morals ; 
to collect facts and extend information, and in a thousand 
nameless ways to exert a salutary general influence ; it would 
seem to complete a system of exertion, which we might hope 
would retrieve, what we have lost, and perpetuate forever ci- 
vil and religious institutions. Associations of this general 
nature for the promotion of the arts and sciences, have ex- 
erted a powerful influence, with great success; and no rea- 
son it is presumed can be given, why tbe cause of morals, 
may not be equally benefitted by similar associations. 

Finally, To counteract the prevalent declension, and raise 
the standard of 'public morals, it is peculiarly necessary to 
preserve indissoluble the connection between sin and shame, 

A sense of shame will deter multitudes from the commis- 
sion of crimes, whom conscience alone would not deter. — 
Happily in New-England, immorality of every description 
has from tbe beginning been associated with disgrace. But 
the prevalence of wickedness in high places, and the growing 
frequency of crimes, have at length paralized the public sen- 
sibility, and lightened the tax of shame. Hence criminals 
whom our fathers would have abhorred, have been first " en- 
dured, then pitied, then embraced. " This compromise with 
crimes if persisted in will undo. us. Let the profligate be 
received with complacency into virtuous society, and enjoy 
without impediment the suffrage of the community, and the 
public conscience will be seared as with a hot iron. The 
distinctions between right and wrong will disappear. The 
wicked, open-mouthed, will walk on every side, and tread 
down with impunity the remnants of law and order. If we 
would reform the land, we must return therefore, to the stern 
virtue of our ancestors, and lay the whole tax of shame up- 
on the dissolute and immoral. 

Let this circumspection concerning moral character, at- 
tend us in the selection of schoolmasters to instruct our chil- 

concerning existing evils in society, and the proper method of preventing 
them, resolving 1 to exercise their best discretion to promote a reformation. In 
other cases ; where circumstances dictated the necessity and expediency, reg- 
ular associations have been formed ; and always, when prudently conducted, 
with decisive efT'ect. The manner of exertion may however be safely left to 
local discretion. For in whatever shape reformation, in any place, has been 
seriously attempted it has always succeeded, and with far less difficulty than 
was anticipated. 



dren ; of subordinate magistrates, to manage the eoncerns 
of the town, and to execute the laws of the State ; and in 
selecting the members of our State and National Legisla- 
tures, and we shall soon experience the good effects of our 
caution. But disregard this single consideration, and clothe 
with power irreligious and immoral men, and we cannot stop 
the prevalence of crimes. From the bad pre-eminence to 
•which we exalt the wicked, the flood of iniquity will roll 
down upon us, and the judgments of God will follow and 
sweep us away, 

IV. We are to consider some of the motives which should 
animate the wise and the good, to make immediate and vig- 
orous exertion for the reformation of morals, and the pre- 
servation of our laws and institutions. 

And certainly the importance of the interest in jeopardy, 
demands our first and most serious regard. 

Ii we consider only the temporal prosperity of New- Eng- 
land, especially, and of Connecticut in particular, the inter- 
est, is the most important earthly interest that ever called 
forth the enterprize of man. No other portion of the human 
race ever commenced a national existence as we commenced 
ours. Our very beginning was civilized, learned, and pious. 
The sagacious eye of our ancestors, looked far down the vale 
of time. Their benevolence laid foundations and reared su- 
perstructures for the accommodation of distant generations. 
Through peril, and tears, and blood, they procured the inhe- 
ritance, which, with many prayers, they bequeathed unto us. 
It has descended in an unbroken line. It is now in our pos- 
session, impaired indeed by our folly, perverted and abused, o 
but the richest inheritance still, which the mercy of God con- 
tinues to the troubled earth. No where beside, if you search 
the world over, will you find so much real liberty, so much 
equality, so much personal safety and temporal prosperity, so 
general an extension of usuful knowledge, so much religious 
instruction, so much moral restraint, and so much divine 
mercy to make these blessings the power of God and the 
wisdom of God unto salvation. Shall we throw away this 
precious bequest? Shall we surrender our laws and liberties, 
our religion and morals, our social and domestic blessings to 
the first invader? Shall we despair and die of every fear, 
without an effort to avert our doom ? What folly ! what infa- 
tuation ! what madness to do so! With what indignation, 
could indignation be in heaven, would our fathers look down 
upon the deed ! With what lamentation, could tears ?>e in 
heaven, would they weep over it! With loud voices, 



n * to 

could they speak to us from heaven, would they beseech their 
degenerate children to put their trust in Ciod and contend 
earnestly for those precious institutions and laws for which 
they toiled and bled! 

2. If we do not awake and engage vigorously in the work 
of reformation it will soon be too late. 

Though reformation be always practicable, if a people are 
disposed to re form, there is a point of degradation from w hich 
neither individuals nor nations are disposed to arise ,• and from 

which the Most High is seldom disposed to raise them. 

When irreligion and vice shall have contaminated the mass 
of the people, when the majority, emancipated from civil and 
moral restraint, shall be disposed to set aside the laws and 
institutions and habits of their fathers; then indeed it may 
be feared that our transgressions and our sins will be upon 
us, and that we shall pine away and die in them. The means 
of preservation passing into other hands, will become the 
means of destruction. Talents and official influence, and the 
power of legislation, and all the resources of the State may 
be perverted to demolish our institutions, laws and usages, 
until every vestige of ancient wisdom and prosperity is gone. 

To this state of things we are hastening, and if no effort 
be made to step our progress, the sun in his course is not 
more resistless than our doom. Our vices are digging the 
grave of our liberties, and preparing to entomb our glory. — 
We may sleep, but the work goes on. We may despise ad- 
monition, but our destruction slumbereth not. Travelling, 
and worldly labor, and visiting and amusement on the Sab- 
bath, will neither produce nor preserve such a state of socie- 
ty as the conscientious observance of the'Sabbath has helped 
to produce and preserve. 

The enormous consumption of ardent spirits in our land, 
will produce neither bodies nor minds like those which were 
the offspring of temperance and virtue. 

The neglect of family government, and family prayer, and 
the religious education of children, will not produce such free- 
men as were formed by early habits of subordination, and the 
constant influence of the fear of God. 

The neglect of official duty in magistrates to execute the 
laws, will not produce the same effects which were produced 
bv the vigilance and fidelity of our fathers to restrain and pun- 
ish crimes. 

Our institutions, civil and religious, have outlived that de= 
Biestic discipline and official vigilance in magistrates to exe~ 
eute the laws whieh rendered obedience easy and habitual. 



21 7 V 

The laws now are beginning to operate extensively upon 
necks unaccustomed to the yoke. And when to the majori- 
ty, they shall become irksome, their execution will become 
impracticable. To this situation they are reduced already 
in some districts of this State, and in many places in New- 
England. Drunkards reel through the streets, day after 
day, and year alter year, with entire impunity. Profane 
s . earing is heard, and even by magistrates as though they 
h ird it not. Efforts to slop travelling on the sabbath have, 
in all places become feeble, and in many places even it this 
State, they have wholly ceased. Grandjurors complain that 
magistrates will not regard their informations, and that the 
public sentiment will not bear them out in executing the 
laws. And conscientious men who dare not violate on oath, 
have be^u i to refuse the office. The only proper characters 
to sustain it, the only men who can retrieve our declining 
state, are driven into the back ground, and their places filled 
with men of easy conscience, who will either do nothing, or, 
by their own example help on the ruin. The public conscience 
is becoming callous by the frequency and impunity of crimes. 
The sin of violating the Sabbath is becoming in the publie 
estimation a little sin and the shame of it nothing. The dis- 
grace is divided among so many that none regard it. The 
Sabbath is trodden down by a host of men whom shame 
alone in better days would have deterred entirely from this 
sin. In the mean time, many, who lament these evils, are 
augmenting them by predicting that all is lost, emboldening 
the enemy and weakening the hands of the wise and good. 
But truly, we do not stand on the confines of destruction. 
The mass is changing. We are becoming another people. 
Our habits have held us, long after those moral causes which 
formed them had in a great degree ceased to operate. These 
habits, at length, are giving way. So many hands, have so 
long been employed to pull away foundations, and so few to 
repair the breaches, that the building totters. So much en- 
terprize has been displayed, in removing obstructions from 
the current of human depravity, and so little to restore them, 
that the stream at length is beginning to run. It may be 
stopped now, but soon it will become deep, and broad, and 
rapid, and irresistible. 

The crisis then has come. By the people of this genera- i 
tion, by ourselves probably, the amazing question is to be de- 
cided, whether the inheritance of our fathers shall be pre- 
served or thrown away.— Whether our Sabbaths shall be a 
delight, or a loathing.— Whether the taverns on that holy 



$•/& 



22 



day, shall be crowded with drunkards, or ihe sanctuary of 
God with humble worshippers — Whether riot and profanity 
shall fill our streets, and poverty our dwellings, and convicts 
our jails, and violence our land, or whether industry and tem- 
perance, and righteousness, shall be the stability of our 
times. — Whether mild laws shall receive the cheerful sub- 
mission of freemen, or the iron rod of a tyrant, compel the 
trembling homage of slaves. Be not deceived. Human na- 
ture in this state is like human nature every where. All ac- 
tual difference in our favour, is adventitious, and the result 
of our laws, institutions, and habits. It is a moral influ- 
ence, which, with the blessing of God, has formed a stale of 
society so eminently desirable. The same influence which 
has formed it, is indispensable to its preservation. The rocks 
and hills of New-England, will remain till the last conflagra- 
tion. But let the Sabbath be profanded with impunity, the 
worship of God be abandoned, the government and religious 
instruction of children neglected, and the streams of intem- 
perance be permitted to flow, and her glory will depart. The 
wall of fire will no more surround her, and the munition of 
rocks will no longer be her defence. 

But 3dly. If we do neglect our duty, and suffer our laws 
and institutions to go dowe, we give them up for ever. It is 
easy to relax, easy to retreat, but impossible, when the abom- 
ination of desolation has once passed over New England, to 
rear again the thrown down altars, and gather a n *ain the 
fragments, and build up the ruins of demolished institutions. 
Another New-England, nor we, nor our children shall ever 
see, if this be destroyed. Another Connecticut will not arise 
upon the ruins of this happy state, if it be given up to the 
empire of sin. All is lost irretrievably, when the land- 
marks are once removed, and the bands which now hold us 
are once broken. Such institutions, and such a state of soci- 
ety, can be established only by such men as our fathers were, 
and in such circumstances as they were. They could not 
have made a New-England in Holland. They made the at- 
tempt but failed. Nowhere could they have succeeded, but in a 
wilderness, where they gave the precepts and set the example, 
and made, and executed the laws. W r e may defend these in- 
stitutions ; by vigilance and prayer, and exertion, we may 
retrieve much of what we have lost, and perpetuate a better 
state of society than can elsewhere be made by the art of man. 
But let the enemy come in like a flood, and overturn, and 
overturn, and no place will be found for repentance, though 
it be sought carefully with tears. 



33 



*/, 



4. If we do give up our laws and institutions, our guilt and 
misery will be very great. 

We shall become slaves, and slaves to the worst of mas- 
ters. The profane and the profligate, men of corrupt minds, 
and to every good work reprobate, will be exalted to pollute 
us by their example, to distract us by their folly, and impov- 
erish us by fraud and rapine. Let loose from wholesome 
restraint, and taught to sin by the example of the great, a 
scene most horrid to be conceived, but more dreadful to be 
experienced, will ensue. No people are more fitted to de- 
struction if they go to destruction, than we ourselves. All 
the daring enterprize of New-England, emancipated from 
moral restraint, will become the desperate daring of unre- 
strained sin. Should we break the bands of Christ, and cast 
his cords from us, and begin the work of self-destruction, it 
will be urged on with a malignant enterprize, which has no 
parallel in the annals of time.'and be attended with miseries, 
such as the son has never looked upon. 

The hand that overturns our laws and altars, is the hand 
of death unbarring the gate of Pandemoneum, and letting 
loose upon our land, the crimes and the miseries of hell. If 
the Most High should stand aloof, and cast not a single ingre- 
dient into our cup of trembling, it would seem to be full of 
superlative woe. But he will not stand aloof. As we shall 
have begun an open controversy with him, he will contend 
openly with us. And never since the earth stood, has it been 
so fearful a thing for nations to fall into the hands of the 
living God. The day of vengeance is in his heart, the day of 
judgment has come; the great earthquake which sinks Bab- 
ylon is shaking the nations, and the waves of the mighty 
commotion, are dashing upon every shore. Is this, then, a 
time to remove foundations, when the earth itself is shaken? 
Is this a time to forfeit the protection of God, when the 
hearts of men are failing them for fear, and for looking af- 
ter those things which are coming on the earth ? Is this 
a time to run upon his neck and the thick bosses of his 
buckler, when the nations are drinking blood, and fainting, 
and passing away in his wrath ? Is this a time to throw 
away the shield of faith when his arrows are drunk with 
the blood of the slain ? To cut from the anchor of hope, 
when the clouds are collecting and the sea and the waves 
are roaring, and thunders are uttering their voices, and 
liejhtenings blazening in the heavens, and the great hail is 
falling from heaven upon men, and every mountain, sea and 
island is falling in dismay from the face of an incensed God ? 



$■ 10 



2± 



5. The judgments of God which we feel, and those which 
impend, call tor immediate repentance and reformation Our 
country has never seen such a day as this. By our sins we 
are fitted for destruction. God has begun in earnest, his 
work, his strange work, of national desolation. For many 
years the ordinary gains of industry have tu a great extent 
been cut oft* The counsels of the nation have by one part of 
it been deemed infatuation, and by the other part oracular 
wisdom : while the action and reaction of parties have shaken 
our institutious to their foundations, ilebased our morals, 
and awakened animosities which expose us to dismember- 
ment and all the horrors of civil war. But for all this his 
anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out si ill. 
On our seaboard are the alarms and the plagues of war. 
On our frontiers is heard too the trumpet of war, mingling 
with the war-whoop of the savage, and the cries and dying 
groans of murdered families. In the South, a volcano, whose 
raging fires and murmuring thunders have long been sup- 
pressed, is now with loud admonition threatening an erup- 
tion. In the midst of these calamities, the angel of God has 
received commission to unsheath his sword, and extend far 
and wide the work of death. The little child and the bloom- 
ing youth, the husband and the wife, men of talents and use- 
fulness, the ministers of the sanctuary, and the members of 
the church of God, bow before the stroke and sink to the 
grave. 

That dreadful tempest, the sound of which, till late, was 
heard from afar, borne across (he Atlantic, has at length be- 
gun to beat upon us. And those mighty burnings, the smoke 
of which we beheld from afar, have begun in the nation their 
devouring course. Nothing can avert the tempest, and no- 
thing can extinguish our burning, but repentance and refor- 
mation. For it is the tempest of the wrath Gf God, and the 
fire of his indignation. 

6. Our advantages to achieve a reformation of morals are 
great, and will render our guilt and punishment proportion- 
ably aggravated, if we neglect to avail ourselves of them. 

We are not undone. The harvest is not past, the summer 
is not ended. There is yet remaining much health, and 
strength, in many parts of our land. This state, especially, 
is by its laws thoroughly furnished to e\ery good work. Let 
our laws be executed, and we may live for ever. Nor is their 
execution to be despaired of. In every town in the st^te, the 
majority of the population, are decidedly opposed, it is be- 
Sieved, to those immoral practices which our laws condemn. 



25 



<'.£, 



And in most towns and societies, it is a small minority, who 
corrupt with impunity the public morals. Let the friends of 
\irtue, then, express their opinions, and unite their influence, 
and the Jaws ran be executed. Crimes will become disgrace- 
ful, and the non-execution of the laws, more hazai*dous to 
popularity, than their faithful execution. The friends of 
good morals and good government, have it yet in their pow- 
er to create a public opinion, which nothing can resist. The 
wicked are bold in appearance, but they are cowards at 
heart. Their threats and boastings are loud, but they are 
♦• vox et preterea nihil*' 9 * God is against them. Their own 
consciences are against them. The laws are against them : 
and let only the public opinion be arrayed against them, and 
five shall chase a thousand, and an hundred shall put ten thou- 
sand to flight. 

It is not as if we were called upon to make new laws, and es- 
tablish usages unknown before. We make no innovation. We 
embark in no novel experiment. We set up no new standard 
of morals. We encroach upon no man's liberty. We lord 
it over no man's conscience. We stand upon the defensive 
merely. We contend for our altars and our firesides. We 
rally around the standard which our fathers reared ; and our 
motto is, <» the inheritance which they bequeathed no man shall 
take from us." 

The executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the 
government, are in the hands of men, who. we doubt not, 
will lend to the work of reformation, their example, their 
prayers, their weight of character, official influence, and their 
active co-operation. And will not the clergy, and christian 
churches of all denominations array themselves on the side 
of irood morals and the laws? Will they not like a band of 
brothers, and terrible to the wicked as an army with ban- 
ners, contend earnestly for the precepts of the gospel ? If 
with such means then, of self preservation, we pine away and 
die in our sins, we shall deserve to die ; and our death will 
be dreadful. 

7. But were our advantages fewer than they are, the Lord 
will be on our side, and will bless us if we repent and en- 
deavor to do our duty. 

He commands us to repent and reform, and what he com- 
mands his people to do, he will help them to accomplish if 

* Merc noise and nothing else. 
4 



they make the attempt. He has promised to help them. 

He always has given efficacy, more or less, to the faith Jul 
exertions of men to do good. At the present time, in a pe- 
culiar manner, does he smile upon every essay to do good 

Not a finger is lifted in vain, in any righteous cause. Tin 
result of every enterprize, surpasses expectation. The grain 
of mustard becomes a tree. The little leaven, leavens the 
lump. The voice of providence now is, ** In the morning 
sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for 
this and that shall both prosper." The God in whose help 
we confide, is also our fathers' God, who remembers mercy 
to the thousandth generation of them that fear him and keep 
his commandments. Within the broad circumference of thii 
covenant we stand, and neither few, nor obscure are the in- 
dications of his mercy in the midst of wrath. 

8. The work of reformation is already, it may be hoped, 
auspiciously begun. 

Though in some things, there is a fearful declension of 
morals, which if not arrested, will inevitably destroy us, yet 
it ought to be gratefully acknowledged, that in some respects 
our moral state has for a considerable period been growing 
better. 

The progress of civilization and religion, have softened 
the manners of the people, and banished to a great extent, 
that violence of passion, which ended in broils and lawsuits. 

Those indecencies also, which too often polluted the inter- 
course of the sexes, and warred upon the best interests of 
society, have to a great extent, given place to habits of re- 
finement and virtue. 

Though at this time there be heresies, that they which 
are approved may be manifest, there has never been in this 
state, perhaps never in the nation, a more extensive preva- 
lence of evangelical doctrine. Great efforts have been made 
also, ^nd with signal success, to raise up a learned and pious 
ministry for the churches; from which, in time, a great re- 
forming influence may be expected : for the morals of a na- 
tion will ever hold a close alliance, with the talents and learn- 
ing, the piety and orthodoxy of its clergy. The number of 
pious people, has, in the course of fifteen years, been greatlv 
increased, and attended with a more than correspondent in- 
crease of prayer. Those local weekly associations for pray- 
er, which are now spread over our land, are most of them, 
#f comparatively recent origin. 



5^« 

27 

In perfect accordance with this increased spirit of prayer, 
has been the etfusion oi'the Holy Spirit in the revival of reli- 
gion. These revivals have been numerous, great and glori- 
ous ; and blessed be God, they still prevail. Their reforming 
influence has been salutary beyond expression. Wherever 
they have existed, they have raised up the foundations of ma- 
ny generations. They have done more than all other caus- 
es, to arrest our general decline, and are this moment turn- 
ing back the captivity of our land. 

The churches under their renovating influence, are begin- 
ning to maintain a more efficient discipline, and to superin- 
tend with more fidelity, the religious education of their bap- 
tised children. The declension of infidel philosophy, with 
respect to civil government, and the government and reli- 
gious education of children, have had their day, it is hoped, 
and are retiring to their own place, succeeded happily, by the 
maxims of revelation and common sense. 

The missionary spirit which is beginning to pervade our 
land, promises also an auspicious reforming influence. It 
teaches us to appreciate more justly our own religious priv- 
ileges, and calls off the hearts of thousands from political 
and sectarian bickerings, to unite them in one glorious en- 
terprize of love. Who, also, but the Lord our God, has cre- 
ated that extensive and simultaneous predisposition in the 
public mind, to favor a work of reformation. Who, in this 
day of clouds and tempest, has opened the eyes of the people 
to recognise their dependence upon God, and his avenging 
hand in the judgments which they feel, and turned their 
hearts to seek him, to an unusual extent, by fasting and hu- 
miliation and prayer. 

Who, indeed, has poured out upon our land, a spirit of re- 
formation, as real, if not yet as universal, as the spirit of 
missions. The fact is manifest, from the zeal of individuals | 
the reviving fidelity of magistrates in various places ; the ad- 
dresses of ecclesiastical bodies, and the formation of general 
and local associations, to suppress crimes, and support the 
laws and institutions of our land,* 

* A society was formed in Boston, on the fifth of February, last, entitled 
" The Massachusetts Society, for the Suppression of Intemperance." The ob- 
ject of the Society is stated to be, " to discountenance and suppress the too 
frequent use of Ardent Spirits, and its kindred vices, profaneness, and gaming; 
and to encourage and promote temperance and general morality. With a 
view to this object, the Society will recommend the institution of auxiliary 



H 1 * 



25 



The Most High, then, has begun to help us. While judg- 
ments are abroad, the nation is beginning to learn righteous- 
ness. These favorable circumstances, do by no means su- 
percede the necessity of special exertion ; but they are joy- 
ful pledges that our labor shall not be in vain in the Lord. 
They are his providential voice, announcing that he is waiting 
to be gracious ; and that if we « hearken to him, he will soon 
subdue our enemies, and turn' his hand against our adversa- 
ries. That the haters of the Lord shall submit themselves 
unto him, but our time shall endure for ever." Therefore, 

9. If we endure a little longer, the resources of the mil- 
lennial day, will come to our aid. 

Many are the prophetic signs, which declare the rapid ap- 
proach of that day. "Babylon the great is fallen. The lalse 
Prophet is hastening to perdition. That wicked one hath ap- 
peared, whom the Lord will destroy, by the breath of his 
mouth and the brightness of his coming. The day of his 
vengeance is wasting the earth. The last vial of the wrath 
of God is running, the angel having the everlasting gospel to 
preach to men, has begun his flight, and with trumpet sound- 
ing long and waxing loud, is calling to the nations to look 
unto Jesus and be saved. Soon will the responsive song be 
heard from every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 
as the voire of a great multitude, and as the voire of many 
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, alle- 
lujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. 

On the confines of such a day shall we despair? While its 
felesspd light is beginning to shine, shall we give up our laws 
and institutions and sink down to the darkness and torments 
of the bottomless pit ? 

societies in different parts of the commonwealth, and hold correspondence with 
other societies which may be instituted for the same general object. 

" Besides the usual officers of the Society, there is a board of counsel, con. 
sisting of eight persons, which is to act as the executive of the Society. To 
make communications to the auxiliary societies, and to receive communica- 
tions from them. To collect, combine, and digest facts, and general informa- 
tion relating 1 to the purposes of the Society. To devise ways and means tor 
the furtherance of these purposes, to apply the Society's funds according to di- 
rection, and at each annual meeting* to report to the society their doings, a di= 
gest of the facts, and general information which they may have collected, and 
such measures as they may judge suitable for the society to adopt and pursue. 
They shall hold stated quarterly meetings." Pi.KOPLisT/or Febuary 1813- p 
118,119, |20. 



29 



/'^ 



10. But considerations, before which the kingdoms of this 
world fade and are forgotten, call us to instant exertion in the 
Work of reformation. 

Every one of us must stand before the judgment seat of 
Christ, livery one of us, as a friend or an enemy, shall live 
under his government forever. We shall drink of the river 
of pleasure, or of the cup of trembling. We shall sing the 
song of Moses and the Lamb, or lift up our enes with the 
smoke of our torment. 

The instituiions in danger, are the institutions of heaven ; 
provided to aid us in fleeing from the wrath to come. The 
laws (o be preserved, are laws, which have lent their congen- 
ial i nil ue nee to the immortal work of saving sinners. The 
welfare of millions through eternity, depends, under God, up- 
on their preservation. 

Ye parents, which of your children can you give up to the 
miseries of a profligate life, and the pangs of an impenitent 
death ? Which, undone by your example, or negligence and 
folly, are you prepared to meet on the left hand of our Judge ? 
Which, if by a miracle of mercy \ou should ascend to heav- 
en, can you leave behind, to go away into everlasting tor- 
ment ? Call around you the dear children whom God has 
given you, and look them o'er and o'er : and, if among them 
all, you cannot find a victim to sacrifice, awake, and with all 
diligence uphold those institutions, which the good Shepherd 
has provided to protect and save them. 

My fathers and brethren, who minister at the altar. The 
time is short. We must soon meet our people at the bar of 
God. Should we meet any of them undone by our example, 
or sloth, or unbelief, dreadful will be the interview ! Shall 
we n *t lift up our voice as a trumpet, and do quickly and with 
all our might, what our hands find to do ? 

Ye magistrates of a christian land, ye ministers of God for 
good ; the people of this land, alarmed by the prevalence of 
crimes, and by the judgments of God, look up to you for pro- 
tection. By the glories and terrors of the judgment day, by 
the jojs of heaven, and the miseries of hell, they beseech 
you, as the ministers of God. to save them and their chil- 
dren from the dangers of this untoward generation. 

Ye men of wealth and influence; will ye not help in this 
great attempt to reform, and save our land ? Are not 
distinctions talents, for the employment of which you must 
give an account to God, and can you employ them better 



9-Lt 



30 



than to consecrate them to the service of your generation by 
the will of God ? 

Let me entreat those unhappy men, to consider their end, 
who haste to be rich hy unlawful means. Who thrive by the 
vices and ruin of their fellow men. How dreadful to you 
will be the day of death ? How intolerable the day c f judg- 
ment? How many broken hearted widows and fatnerless 
children, will then lift up their voices to testify against you ? 
How many damned spirits will ascend from the world of woe, 
to cry out against you, as the wretches who ministered to 
their lusts, and fitted them for destruction ? In vain will you 
plead that if you had not done the murderous deed, other 
men would have done it. Or that, if you had not destroyed 
them, they had still destroyed themselves. If other men had 
done the deed, they, and not you, would answer for it. If 
they had destroyed themselves without your agency, their 
blood would be upon their own heads. But as you contrib- 
uted voluntarily to their destruction, you will be holden as 
partakers in their sins, and their blood will be required at 
your hands. Why will you then traffic in the souls and bo- 
dies of men, and barter away your souls for the gains of a 
momentary life ! 

To conclude. Let me entreat the unhappy men, who are 
the special objects of legal restraint, to cease from their evil 
ways, and supercede the necessity of coercion and punish- 
ment, by voluntary reformation. Why will you die? What 
fearful thing is there in heaven, which makes you flee from 
that world ? What facinating object in hell, that excites 
such frenzied exertion to burst every band, and o'erleap eve- 
ry mound, and force your way downward to the chambers of 
death ? Stop ! I beseech you, and repent, and Jesus Christ 
shall blot out your sins and remember your transgressions no 
more. Stop, and the host who follow your steps, shall turn, 
and take hold on the path of life. Stop, and the wide waste 
of sin shall cease, and the song of angels shall be heard again, 
«» Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will to 
men." Stop, and instead of wailing with the damned, you 
shall join the multitudes which no man can number, in the 
ascription of blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, to 
him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and 
ever AMEN. 



* 



'// 



The following is the substance of the Constitution of the 
Moral Society in East- Hampton. 

Article I, There shall be chosen annually in the society, a 
President, Vice President, Clerk and Treasurer. It shall be 
the duty of the President, and in his absence of the Vice- 
President, to preside and preserve order, in the meetings of 
the society. The clerk shall record the proceedings, and the 
treasurer shall keep the accounts of the society. 

There shall be chosen, also, annually, a committee, who 
between each meeting of the society, shall conduct at discre- 
tion the affairs of the society, and report their proceedings at 
each stated meeting. In addition to the report of their pro- 
ceedings, the committee shall, also, at each meeting, report 
in answer to one or all the following questions : 

1. What evils of a moral nature, are now existing in this 
community ? 

2. What is the probable cause of those evils ? 

3. In what manner can they, with the most probable suc- 
cess, be remedied ? 

Art. II. It shall be the duty of each member of this soci- 
ety, to abstain, and if a parent or master, to endeavor to cause 
those committed to his care, to abstain from such immoral 
practices, as it is the object of this society to prevent ; and 
if any member shall persist in immoral conduct, he shall 
cease to be a member of this society. 

Art. III. It shall be the duty of the members of this socie- 
ty, to use their influence to prevent such immoral conduct as 
talis under their notice ; and it shall be the duty of the soci- 
ty to support their committee, and to support individuals, in 
*iil prudent measures, to suppress vice and promote the ob- 
jects of the institution. 

Art. IV. Any person of good moral character, who wishes 
to join the society, shall, on subscribing to the constitution, 
become a member. And any in regular standing, who shall 
be disposed to leave the society, shall on his signifying it to 
the meeting, have that liberty. 

It is an obvious reflection, and one which in the formation 
of the society in this place was early realized, that the con» 



wt 



OS 



stitution of a moral society, must be adapted to the local cir- 
cumstances of tbe people proposing to unite, in populous 
cities, where neighbors have less intercourse, and viee is more 
bold, it may be more advisable to stipulate what, in given 
cases, will be done ; but in a country town, eonneeted b\ ties 
of blood and neighborhood, too great particularity in tbe con- 
stitution, would, it was found, intimidate the virtuous, excite 
the oppostion of the vicious, and defeat the proposed union. 
It was soon perceived that the utility of I he society would 
depeud less on what was said in the constitution, than what 
was done by the society, when formed ; and that it would be 
easier to prescribe remedies, as circumstances should r< quire* 
than to secure their application beforehand, by the provision 
of a constitution. 

It will not escape observation, that in a society instituted 
for the suppression of vice, it cannot be expected that everj 
member will experience at all times, and permanently that 
zeal which is necessary to perpetuate the institution : or, 
that those duties, which it equally belongs to ail to perform, 
will, by all, be performed so promptly, and correctly, as if 
devolving on a smaller number. This consideration led to 
the selection of an annual committee, to transact at discre- 
tion the affairs of the society, and report at each meeting. 
This arrangement, in connection with the report on the mor- 
al state of society, has been found to answer the most salu- 
tary purpose. The zeal of this body will be more easily kei 
alive, vices will be more early noticed, and in the report 
the committee, held up lo public notice. This alone, will, 
probably in most instances, supercede the necessity of ; 
pealing to the laws. 

In a few places where the formation of moral societies m 
be attempted, will there be found any so hardened, and d 
titute of character, as openJy to oppose the real object of t 
institution. The novelty of the thins: may excite the pre t 
dices of some, at heart friendly to order ; and the secret < 
mity of others will lead them to excite suspicion, and cir< 
late misrepresentation. Too great care cannot, therefor* 
taken to proceed with caution, and to circulate the earlic 
and most correct information. And if, in its progress, a o- 
ciety should meet with opposition, and be charged with c 
ating disturbance, it should constantly be remembered, thai 
vice is the criminal cause of the mischief, and not those who 
are engaged to suppress it. 



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